Inside the San Francisco Hair Salon That Aims to Be a Drybar for Protective Styling

It was a moment of frustration—or rather, several—that inspired Natanya Montgomery to create Naza, a reimagined salon experience for black and brown women that opens in San Francisco’s Mission District this week.

“I’m sitting in a chair, getting my hair done, and my stylist was like, ‘Oh, I actually have to go to BART to pick up my friend. Are you good?” Montgomery recalls. “Literally half of my head is done, there's no one else in the space, so I'm just supposed to sit here alone…but there's no part of me that can say no, so I guess I am good.”

After a lifetime of so-so salon visits, Montgomery, a self-described “master of experience design,” realized she was perfectly positioned to build something better from the ground up. At Naza, which offers variations on a set menu of protective styles for coily and kinky hair textures, that experience begins at booking. Using Naza’s proprietary software, clients can choose everything from the color of the hair they want to the amount of conversation they want to have with their stylist.

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The styling stations at NazaPhoto: Courtesy of Naza Beauty

Whether it's braids, twists, crochet styles, sew-ins, or blowouts, every style offered by Naza can be done in four hours or less—a far cry from the eight or more hours many of us have become accustomed to in the chair at our local salon. The secret? Training and consistency. “There is no real formal training for a lot of braiding,” Montgomery explains. “And so for [stylists], you sort of do it the way you've always done it. But there is a lot of space for improvement and innovation. We do training and speed drills to make sure we're on time, every time.”

Once you step off Valencia Street and past Naza’s doors, the next aspect of Montgomery’s curated experience springs to life. “I wanted every single person that walks in, sees it on the street, or sees an Instagram ad to know that this is by, for, and centering black and brown women,” she says of her approach to the salon’s interiors. “We were thinking, ‘What would make a black woman feel at home?’” The space is defined by rich jewel tones and velvety textures; vintage advertisements for throwback hair products line the walls, punctuated by timeless taglines (“Love your hair,” indeed).

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The reception areaPhoto: Courtesy of Naza Beauty

At the center of the space sits a custom-made 27-foot long table with mirrors and iPads “playing shows that you know and love from childhood.” Every station features outlets for charging phones and getting work done—although the salon also has mimosas and mocktails on deck if you’d rather just relax—and the whole structure is modular, so that it can be customized for evening events. “Black salons have been a hub of community forever,” Montgomery says. “We've been working really intentionally to create lots of programming here in the space.”

Even though Montgomery is perfecting the art of the salon experience, she knows that the fun really starts once you leave with a new look. “You know the stylist turns you around and says ‘How do you like it?’ and you're like, ‘Oh my God I love it,’ but then you go to your car and you're in the mirror fixing your part, adding your own edge control, making it your own?” she says, perfectly summing up the first 20 minutes after every hair appointment. “It's not because you didn't like the work they did, it's just because you need some space to find your ‘done’ moment.” Enter The Playground, a retail and self-styling area within Naza, where clients can zhuzh their freshly-laid tresses and pick up any products they may need to maintain or enhance their look.

Part of The PlaygroundPhoto: Courtesy of Nasa Beauty

In a world where Afro-textured hair is too often seen as a nuisance or an aberration, Montgomery is adamant about making each and every visitor to Naza feel celebrated, cared for, and, above all else, respected. After all, stopping in to have your hair done should enhance your day, not consume it. “We respect your time,” Montgomery says, “so you can be in and out, and then go conquer the world in the way that you're supposed to.”